“Palm Sunday: No Good without Good Friday”
John 12:12-19
3/16/08
The crowds were excited about seeing Jesus come into
Jerusalem. Most of them had witnessed His raising Lazarus from
the dead. Nothing could have made it clearer to them that here at
last was their long awaited Messiah. And now He was surely going
to set up His kingdom on earth, drive out the Roman oppressors, and
bring back the golden age of King Solomon. Both by waving palm
branches and by shouting, “Hosanna!” the crowds made their
expectations for Jesus known: palm branches were a symbol of life
and salvation, and the word “Hosanna!” means “Save
now!” And so they hoped that Jesus would usher in both life
and salvation for them. And He was, in fact, going to do this
very thing. But He was not going to do it the way they expected
He would. He was not going to let the crowds make Him into the
King they wanted Him to be. Instead, He was going to be the King
they needed Him to be. And that meant that He was going to go to
the cross.
This was, of course, the furthest thing from the
minds of these people on that first Palm Sunday. The
couldn’t imagine their Messiah King suffering and dying, let
alone being crucified like a common criminal. Again, they must
have had in their minds the days of King Solomon, whose reign was the
most glorious their nation had ever seen. Solomon was the
wealthiest king in Israel’s history (possibly the wealthiest king
in world history); in his day silver wasn’t even considered to be
valuable, there was so much of it around. He was also the wisest
king, the wisest man, who ever lived, so wise that the fame of his
wisdom spread among the nations, so that people came from miles around
to hear him. He was also the most powerful of all the kings of
Israel; the territory over which Solomon ruled extended from the border
of Egypt to the Euphrates River in modern day Iraq. And he built
a beautiful temple for the Lord. In Jesus’ day, Herod had
recently built a new temple for the Jews, but this one paled in
comparison to the one that Solomon had built.
All of this must have been in the people’s
minds as to what to look for in a Messiah. He would have to be at
least as wise, as powerful, and as rich as King Solomon. And life
under this King would have to be at least as good, at least as
peaceful, safe, prosperous, as it was for the people who lived under
Solomon. If it went well for their Messiah King, it must go well
for them, too.
But they couldn’t have been more wrong.
Yes, it would have been good for Jesus if He had set up an earthly
reign like King Solomon’s. But it was wrong to think that
if things went well for Him that it would go well for His people.
If things had gone well for Jesus, it would have been bad for us.
If things on Palm Sunday had gone the way the crowds expected them to
go for Jesus, He never would have gone to the cross to atone for our
sins. Palm Sunday, then, would have been no good without Good
Friday.
And yet, a Palm Sunday Jesus is just the kind of
Jesus that many Christians want today. Like the crowds here, many
Christians want a crossless Christ. They may not outright deny
that Jesus went to the cross, but the fact is, they rarely talk about
it. They rarely preach Christ crucified. They rarely
proclaim the forgiveness of sins He won for us on the cross. They
don’t even like to see crucifixes like this one (point to the
crucifix) which to them teaches that Christ is still dead. For
them, if you’re going to have a cross at all it must be an empty
cross. But even still, their focus is not on the work that Jesus
accomplished for us on the cross. Rather, their focus is on Jesus
as Lord, and for them that means He’s the boss. Like
subjects who live under an earthly king, life under this King means
living in obedience to Him. And so, that’s all they preach
and teach - obedience, submission, and keeping the commandments, with
punishments for disobedience, rewards for obedience. Thus, the
focus for these Christians has shifted from what Jesus has done
for us to what we’re supposed to be doing for Him.
Christianity has ceased to be about Christ, and instead it’s now
all about me.
But if this is the kind of King Jesus is, if
He’s a King that rules like any other king, a king who rules by
show of force, laying down laws and commandments, threatening
punishment for disobedience and promising rewards for obedience, then
this kind of Jesus is no good for us. He’d be no better
than another Moses. And since we’ve failed at keeping
Moses’ commandments, what makes us think we’d be able to
keep Christ’s commandments? Thanks be to God, Jesus is not
this kind of king. He is not the kind of king we want or expect
Him to be. He’s not another Moses. He’s not
another Solomon. This King didn’t come to be served but to
serve and to give His life as a ransom for us. Thanks be to God,
things didn’t turn out the way the crowds on Palm Sunday wanted
them to. Jesus didn’t take His seat on a throne of marble
and reign like Solomon. Instead, He went to the cross.
Because it went badly for this King, it’s now well with
you. Therefore, we rejoice in the cross of Christ and boldly
proclaim Him crucified. We let Him take His seat on Calvary,
which is where He wants to go for us, so that He might save us from
sin, death, and the power of the devil.
Jesus was not going to remain under God’s
blessing, as the crowds had hoped, but He was going to put Himself
under God’s curse, so that we who were under God’s curse
might be blessed. The crowds were shouting, “Blessed is He
who comes in the Name of the Lord!” And it’s true -
this was God’s beloved Son with whom He was well-pleased.
But if Jesus had remained safely under God’s blessing, it would
have been bad for us, who were under God’s curse on account of
our sin. We would still be subject to God’s wrath today and
on our way to hell to suffer there eternally, if Jesus hadn’t put
Himself in our place and suffered that wrath for us on the cross.
And yet, many Christians don’t take sin that seriously, or they
categorize sins, so that to them there’s the really bad ones like
murder, adultery, and homosexuality. You’re a real sinner
if you commit these. But you don’t have to worry too much
about the small ones like gossip, lustful thoughts, or lying. And
yet, the sin that plunged mankind into a state of death and total
depravity, putting us under the curse of the Law, was simply the sin of
eating a piece of fruit which they were told not to eat. This sin
along with all others, including the sinful condition in which we are
all born, required that Jesus reign on the throne of the cross, putting
Himself under the curse of the Law where we were, to atone for our sins
with His shed blood, so that we might no longer live under the curse of
the Law, but under God’s blessing. Because it went badly
for King Jesus, it’s now well with you. You are now blessed
by God in Christ.
Another way in which Jesus demonstrated that He was
not going to be the Messiah King the crowds expected Him to be was by
riding into Jerusalem mounted on a donkey’s colt. Here He
made it clear that He was not going to glorify Himself in the way the
people wanted to glorify Him. Again, they were looking for the
pomp and splendor of King Solomon. Instead, Jesus was going to
humble Himself, and through that humility be glorified by the
Father. If things had gone well for Jesus and He had received the
glory of the world, the glory of King Solomon, it would have meant no
glory for us, who have been humbled on account of our sin. But
since Jesus humbled Himself and then was glorified, we who are baptized
into His death and resurrection can look forward to being glorified
ourselves on the Last Day. Jesus’ humiliation means our
glorification. He put Himself in our place, so that we might be
put in His place with Him in glory. Some Christians are looking
for the glory now. Just as they don’t like to focus on
Christ’s cross, so they don’t like to focus on their own
crosses. Suffering is bad; it’s to be avoided at all
costs. Some even believe that it’s the Christian’s
right never to suffer or get sick. But Jesus says, “If
anyone would be my disciple he must deny himself, take up his cross,
and follow me.” Being a disciple of Jesus means bearing the
cross; it entails suffering. But just as Jesus was glorified in
His suffering, so He glorifies His body, the Church, as she suffers,
working through her suffering for her benefit. And just as Jesus
was also glorified at His resurrection, so you too can look forward to
being glorified at your own resurrection when He comes again for
you. So, when your cross weighs especially heavy, look to Christ
crucified and risen for you. This King humbled Himself, suffered
and died, rose again, and was glorified, so that having suffered and
died with Him you who believe in Him might also be raised from the dead
and be glorified with Him.
So, if things had gone well for this King, it would
have gone badly for us, His people. Most subjects wish their
kings a long life. “Long live the King!” they
say. But if this King hadn’t died, we would not have
lived. If Jesus had not taken His seat on the throne of the
cross, you would still be dead in your trespasses and sins. If
Jesus had remained under God’s blessing, you would have remained
under God’s curse. If Jesus had not humbled Himself for
you, you would not be exalted. Without Good Friday, Palm Sunday
would be no good at all, because all we would have is a King named
Jesus whose reign would be like the reign of any other king, a reign
under which we’d be nothing but slaves, subject to the Law and
its punishment. But thanks be to God, Jesus is not that kind of
king. This King gave His life for you on the cross, shedding His
blood to atone for your sins, so that you might live under God’s
grace and mercy, that you might be blessed, that you might be exalted,
that you might saved from all sin, from death, and from the power of
the devil and live and reign with Jesus in His heavenly kingdom for all
eternity. Jesus has done the “Hosanna” the way we
needed Him to do it. Now Palm Sunday can be celebrated the right
way - connected with Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Amen.